VATICAN CITY — In choosing a name no other pope had ever taken, Pope Francis could be signaling that he sees the need for change in the Roman Catholic church. The name recalls two of the church's most famous saints.

One is Francis of Assisi, the man from the Umbrian hill town who renounced a wealthy, dissolute lifestyle to found the Franciscan order of friars in 1209, embracing a life of poverty and simplicity and going out in the countryside to preach a message of joy and peace.

The other is Francis Xavier, a globe-trotting Spaniard who became one of Christianity's greatest missionaries and was a founding figure of the Jesuit order, of which the new pope is a member.

Pope Francis didn't cite either of them when he made his first public speech as pontiff Wednesday night, but within an hour of his presentation to the world from the central balcony of St. Peter's Basilica, his choice of name was being hailed as heralding what could be his priorities — and perhaps style — at the helm of a troubled church.

Because Francis is associated with peacemaking, the choice of name could foretell the pope's priority to bring a sense of serenity to a church feeling rudderless by Benedict XVI's departure.

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